Deal Alert: Grab the original Microsoft Surface Pro for just $499 at Best Buy

The original Microsoft Surface Pro launched last year and while the Windows 8 tablet itself has yet to celebrate an entire year in the hands of the general public, Best Buy in the US has the product available for just $499.99. The regular listing price is stated to be $899.99, saving consumers $400 when making the purchase. While this isn't the Surface Pro 2, if you're looking for a premium tablet to power through daily tasks this deal will be a difficult one to overlook.

Compared against its successor, the hardware is pretty much identical should you exclude the adjustable kickstand and latest generation Intel chips. This particularly unit comes with 128GB internal storage, which is more than enough for software, some games and personal media. A 10.6-inch display (1920x1080) with pen input support, full-size USB and Bluetooth 4.0, the Surface Pro has all the features when it comes to mobile computing.

Will you be looking to pick one up and take advantage of this price cut?

I still can't decide over this deal. I'm holding off for a surface mini (i don't care if it's rt, as long as it can do onenote with pen) or a thinkpad tablet 3 (since my disappointment with the thinkpad 8) but this one is tempting me, not only for onenote but also for lightroom!

The price is really attractive, especially for a core i5 tablet. I just don't like the 16.9 ratio..

I just picked one up at a Microsoft Store. They are offering the same price AND you can order online or in person.
Not worried about the battery life. It is plenty long enough for my use. This is a smoking hot deal. Imagine how many of these they would have sold if this had been the price all along. Power keyboard can always be added if necessary, but I really won't need it.

Looking at the headline of this post, I automatically thought the 64gb Surface Pro is $500. To get this for the 128gb version is a great price considering that the only thing that can compete with this is the bay trail tablets like the Asus T100 which are very usable and sells for $400.

This is a great deal. I love my Surface Pro and paying full price was worth being able to use it for nearly a year already. It really changed the way I do business at home and on the road. I haven't had an incident of running out of battery yet, but I am cognizant of keeping it fully charged when possible. I didn't feel the need to upgrade to a Surface Pro 2, although I do recognize the fine improvements. I may be in the market for a Surface Pro 3, but we'll see how long this device keeps kicking!

Last years i5, compared to this years Atom? The i5 wins hands down. The Atom processors tend to be as fast as top of the line processors from several years back. I'd be surpised if this years Atom was at performance parity with Core 2 Duo Processors.

For the 128gb model, this is a really good deal. If I didn't have a Samsung Slate 7 running Windows 8.1 that is very close in specs to this model besides only 64gb (It's a one year older i5 processer so it's ALMOST as fast) I would be all over this... Funny, I didn't think so but, with Windows, Office 2010 and a bunch of store games, I still have a good chunk of space left with only 64gb.

Mine even has a AT&T SIM slot on it for wireless internet... Maybe a ebay tradeup is in order...

Maybe with this price point it will lower used on prices, If they are $499.99 new, then $300-350 should be where used ones should be AND right now that would be a great deal...

Wish the video card was a little bit better on this tablet and supported at least DirectX9....Then with a Xbox controler adapter, it could be a epic gaming machines

I'm torn on whether or not to get this as a temporary until Broadwell or continue with my current ThinkPad yoga order. I tend to do a lot of off-position typing though, so I am leaning towards a haswell yoga. Anybody have any arguments to convince me otherwise?

Correct, you get 4-6 hours. Still worth $500 seeing as most core based computers in that range get that, which is still good for the price. And you get a 1080p + 128gb ssd + digitizer + excellent build quality to boot.

All depends on how long you are away from network power. For a regular workday with some meetings and/or some time at night on the couch, 4-5 hours (I've never really run out, so I don't know) are plenty - you just plug it in when you're back in the office. Plugging in a computer ain't that hard.

Really hard to compare them both but I will say the new Atom processors have put up some nice numbers in terms of performance and battery life. But it still doesn't beat the i5 in performance but battery life is a different story.

I totally agree its a no brainer if you need it. I don't personally need one and this would be an impulse buy for me. At $500 I probably won't get it, but $100 cheaper and I would strongly consider it.

No... It's faster than my 2000$ desktop computer I bought a year earlier. Since I bought the Surface I haven't used my desktop computer again. I bought the Surface at 1000$ and even then I couldn't believe they sold such an awesome tool at such a low price!

You really gotta get out of that cave and compare it with the price of a laptop with that same specs. An i5 laptop with a 128GB Solid State Drive and 4GB RAM costs a good $800-$1,000. That's not considering the Touchscreen option, and the portability.

A desktop is a feature that 99% of the people still use. It is a part of Windows that allows tens and hundred millions of applications to be ran. It also allows really advanced file management. Now only that, it also gives you the option to have desktop apps open simultaneously, rather than apps that bring us back to Windows 1.0 (where you cannot move the apps, or resize them).

I am a programmer myself, and ran Visual Studio. Visual Studio for desktop was running really great. If you want to do programming, use the type cover. I use the touch cover, and even though I am used to it, I would definitely get the type cover (I personally am waiting for the power cover).

For Visual Studio for Windows Phone, it is great, but one small caveat. I don't know if it is that big of a deal, but XAML and Designer are split half and half. I personally made the designer a bit smaller and XAML a bit bigger, so it isn't that bad. The source code is on a whole separate tab, which should be fine.

Personally, the 8gb ram is not worth it since juggling that many open programs on a 10"screen is somewhat impractical. You will rarely use that extra 4gb... And many programs aren't even coded to use more than 4gb ram anyway. Save $300 and get the $999 one.

It is the Surface Pro for a reason. Don't forget the OS takes half the memory, that leaves you with 2GB, and virtual RAM from the SSD. Photoshop will gobble up RAM extremely fast when working with high resolution comps. Especially now that it has unlimited undos. Same with using most graphics apps. ZBrush, Photoshop, and a web browser will have 2GB gone just having them open with small projects. Any program that is 64GB is capable of using all of it. I can also connect up to a larger monitor at my desk, so I don't even sweat that 10" limitation that everyone fears. If anyone is planning on using the SP2 for work, they should really consider 8GB, especially if they work with photography, graphics, or programming. The average consumer wouldn't need it though. Heck, they more than likely wouldn't even need the Pro version.

I hear you, same here. I just got one immediately after reading it here. Will pick up on my way home from work.

Called wife, told her she will not believe the best deal I got for her, she said ummm, what are you fixing (Learnt that when we moved to Texas, they are always fixing to...) to buy now, I said no, it has nothing to do with what I want, that it is all about the deal that it is almost like when she gets shoe deals of buy one get 2nd one half price even though the kids don't need shoes but the deal is just too good to pass, but on this one, I don't need to get the 2nd tablet. She goes, in that case, you got my blessing.

Well not so. On many products that Best Buy carries, yes they do fire sales. But the Surface is different. Basically Microsoft controls nearly every aspect of it. For example, if somebody returns the Surface, it does not go on an open box/discount sale which is usually what Best Buy does with returned items. It is actually shipped back to them. Also, if say they are out of stock, they cannot "sell" them another unit from another store, which is what they do for other items. The Surfaces actually don't even ship on Best Buy trucks. They are delivered whenever MS decides through FedEx . And now some stores have Microsoft experts that all they do is focus on Microsoft products. I know this because I work in one of the top Best Buy stores that sells more Microsoft products than any other store, including Microsoft stores themselves...